52 HERSCHEL AND HIS WORK 



and the changes it was found to undergo in 333 or 

 334 days, he made at least fourteen separate obser- 

 vations and measurements between October 20, 1777, 

 and February 7, 1780. He was only feeling his way 

 as a recorder of what he saw in the heavens. It 

 was but a beginning, and he was forty-two years of 

 age. 



To do justice to this eager lover of nature, the 

 object which he had in view when he began to make 

 telescopes for himself, should not be forgotten. He 

 wanted to see with his own eyes what others had 

 seen in the heavens, he hoped to see more than they 

 had seen, and at last he determined to build an 

 instrument of such power as should penetrate the 

 depths of space far beyond the boundaries man had 

 at that time attained. His purpose was to see the 

 heavens as the telescope had revealed them to the 

 eyes of others ; it was not to be an assistant in an 

 observatory such as Greenwich, content to discharge 

 the routine work of each day, or perhaps of each 

 night. A telescope, a most powerful telescope, was 

 the purpose deeply rooted in his mind ; it was 

 not to improve the instruments then in use, nor to 

 systematise the work done in observatories. Perhaps 

 he had a large share in doing both. He read the 

 scientific world a lesson on the necessity of all-night as 

 well as all-day work, which they stood much in need 

 of learning. Great and valuable as was the work 

 done at Greenwich then and previously, it was done at 

 small expense to the nation. An astronomer-royal 

 at 300 a year, an assistant at 70, and a kitchen- 

 garden was the kailyard policy pursued by our 

 country up to 1811. Remonstrances were presented 



